| This research seeks to answer the questions: Has U.S. anti-war music's presence changed from 1963--2007? And, if so, why has it changed? Specifically, how did the periods of Vietnam and Afghanistan/Iraq compare with reference to the amount, label affiliation (major vs. independent), "cover songs," genre, and popularity (Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200) of anti-war music? To answer these questions, a database of anti-war songs, commercially released from 1963--2007 in the United States, was compiled and analyzed, with emphasis placed on two time periods reflecting the Vietnam War (1963--1975) and the most recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001--2007). In addition, an analysis of interviews with expert informants and a review of various sources were used to supplement the database analysis. In total, 2,940 anti-war songs were included in the original database. When comparing the Afghanistan/Iraq era with the Vietnam era, the key findings are: (1) the number of anti-war songs released from the Afghanistan/Iraq era greatly outnumbered the songs released in the Vietnam era; (2) during the Afghanistan/Iraq era, independent labels released more anti-war music than did major labels; this was reversed in the Vietnam period, with major label releases outnumbering independents; (3) the anti-war songs of the Vietnam era still hold cultural significance as many of these songs were covered by artists of the Afghanistan/Iraq era; (4) folk and rock were the preferred genres used by anti-war musicians in both eras; (5) the number of anti-war songs that have made the top singles chart (Billboard Hot 100) were higher in the Vietnam era than in the era of Afghanistan/Iraq, even though the number of anti-war songs that were included on best-selling albums (Billboard Hot 200) was higher during the Afghanistan/Iraq period than in the Vietnam period. Four media factors related to the decline in collective discourse were explored to understand changes in anti-war music's popularity between the two time periods: (1) Republican dominance through winning media messages; (2) the media's marginalization of the anti-war counterculture; (3) media consolidation; and (4) media fragmentation. |
